"Unlike last year's release of the iPhone 4S, this year's iPhone 5 announcement comes as a significant departure from previous models," said Daniel Gleeson, mobile analyst for IHS. "The addition of a new, larger screen is a fundamental change in product design. Furthermore, the iPhone 5 is the first member of Apple's smartphone line to feature 4G long term evolution (LTE) connectivity, accelerating data speeds dramatically compared to previous models. These major improvements will drive strong sales for the iPhone 5."

IHS forecasts that the iPhone 5 will push Apple's smartphone shipments up 60% in 2012 from a year earlier. In fact, IHS expects the fourth quarter will be Apple's biggest quarter for iPhone sales ever.

The gains in Apple's stock brought the company's value to a record $653 billion. Last month, Apple overtook Microsoft (MSFT) as the most valuable publicly trading company of all time, without factoring inflation.

>

Meanwhile, Amazon (AMZN) shares also hit a fresh record high of $264.11 early Friday, while Google's (GOOG) stock remains just shy of its all-time high.

The broader U.S. stock market was also gaining ground Friday as the QE3 rally continued for a second day on Wall Street.

Hibah Yousuf is a reporter at CNNMoney, where she covers stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies trading across the globe, as well as corporate earnings and other markets-related news. Prior to joining the site in 2009, she interned at Money Magazine.